This raises a big question for China's fast changing capital. How to modernize the city and improve the living standards of its inhabitants while preserving the ancient capital's flavor?

In recent years, Beijing authorities have come to realize the problem caused by renewal projects. They have enacted laws to strictly control demolition and have enlarged the protection areas around the prestigious Palace Museum, popularly known as the Forbidden City.

But obviously, these efforts are far from enough. In Beijing, every year about 600 hutongs disappear on average, making way for modern residential blocks and shopping centers. It affects even those who are involved in city planning.

"Many buildings along the hutongs are pulled down in front of us, from Wangfujing, Dongdan, to Qianmen and other areas that trace the old city," said Liu Congjie, a famous expert on ancient architecture, saddened by what is going on around him.

Consider options

Having served as China's capital through the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties for nearly 700 years, Beijing has a distinct architectural style, featuring a large number of imperial structures. Even before the middle of the 20th century, the city remained intact, despite wars and natural disasters.

Lin Yutang (1895-1976), author of ageless bestsellers My Country and My People and The Importance of Living, once described Beijing as a gem, an ideal place for a good combination of nature, culture and life.

But in the past 50 years, Beijing has changed dramatically. Although, it has been transformed into a more modern metropolis and people's lifestyles have been greatly improved, the city has slowly withered emotionally and lost its once heralded harmony in city design.

Zhang Yonghe, a well-known Chinese architect, said that the design of old Beijing can be seen as a masterwork in terms of the division of functional areas and traffic convenience.

"Beijing itself has rich experience with regard to city construction, and so any new plans for the city should be started from studies of its own history," Zhang said.

Other experts and scholars have also provided their suggestions to the government for rebuilding the old city of Beijing.

Hua Xinmin, a city protection activist who was born into a family of architects and grew up in a hutong area, has long advocated that Beijing's renewal projects should remain faithful to the "memory of the city." She calls on the government to subsidize courtyard owners who are deeply attached to their homes, encouraging them to renovate their houses by themselves.

"This will not only be helpful to the protection of tangible heritage, but will also continue the intangible culture that comes from the harmony between people and architecture," she said.

As Feng Jicai, a famous writer from Tianjin, said, with generations of people coming and going, they left their memories in a city. Old architectural reminders of the past are not just shabby houses, they carry history and represent the culture of that time. Every building tells a story.

NEWLY RELEASED A new book, Animals' Paradise-Kenya, co-authored by Zhang Yuanxiang, General Manager of China Travel Service (Kenya), and Wang Fengfeng, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency living in Kenya, debuts in Beijing on June 22. The book, published by the New World Press under the China International Publishing Group, has received much positive feedback from readers for its authenticity and vitality.